India captain Virat Kohli has been named Wisden Almanack's ODI player of the 2010s, while England allrounder Ben Stokes was declared the 'Cricketer of the Year' for a second successive time by the highly-rated annual publication.
The 32-year-old Kohli, who made his ODI debut in August 2008 against Sri Lanka, is among the finest batsmen of all time, and has amassed a staggering 12,169 runs from 254 ODIs.
"To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first ODI, five ODI cricketers of the decade have been named in the 2021 edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack," the reference book, often described as Bible of Cricket, stated. Kohli, who was part of the 2011 World Cup winning Indian team, made more than 11,000 runs in the 10-year stretch, averaging over 60 and scoring 42 centuries.
Apart from Kohli, Wisden also named legendary Sachin Tendulkar as the ODI Cricketer of the 1990s. Sachin, in 1998, made nine ODI hundreds, more than any other batsman in a single calendar year. India's World Cup winning former captain Kapil Dev too featured on the list when he was named as the ODI Cricketer for the 1980s.
Meanwhile, Stokes was declared the 'Leading Cricketer in the World' for the second year in a row.
